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Isa Genzken Weltempfänger (World Receiver), 2015 Concrete and metal, 9⅞ × 14½ × 3⅝ in.; antennae: approx. 28⅜ in. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth Collection of Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian
In 1982, Genzken exhibited her only stand-alone readymade sculpture, a functional radio receiver entitled Weltempfänger (World Receiver). By the end of the decade, she began casting Weltempfängers of different sizes in concrete. Devoid of any functional purpose, the receiver itself takes on a symbolic role of relic or ruin. The concrete evokes the widespread reconstruction of a derelict postwar Germany, while the antennae suggest the potential of art to both receive and transmit signals and meaning. —HJ
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